Rise is about "the extraordinary journey of the exceptionally and profoundly gifted."

P. Susan Jacksonis the founder and director of the Daimon Institute and Daimon International.

I imagine a place where a child with a rage to learn gets taught something new and exciting each and every day. Where a child is not told that developmentally they are incapable of learning something simply because of their chronoligical age. Where a child does not go to school every day terrified that they will get in trouble because the misbehave when the frustration of their improper educational fit outweights the developmental maturity of their self control.

Consultant, Researcher, and Mother of two PG children

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(C)= Children's Program

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Melissaregrests that she will be unable to join us this year, but she expects to rejoin us next year!

Melissa Bilash's bio can be found on the 2017 presenters page.

Introduction to Chain Maille (c)
From suits of armor to delicate jewelry, the possibilities are nearly limitless when you start putting together metal rings. Class will start with one weave, and possibly add a second if there's time and interest.Limit 10 students.

Darion Breslauis an artist who has been making, selling, and teaching chain maille for nearly ten years, as well as dabbling in stained glass, ceramics, leatherwork, and photography. He has also been writing (predominantly fantasy) for over a decade.

Selectively construct, and live in, a better reality today

Given human's perception's incredibly biased functioning, why not make it work for you?Selectively construct, and live in, a better reality today (c)

Given human's perception's incredibly biased functioning, why not make it work for you?

Anna Caveneyis the former BIQYA Coordinator and former Director of the MIT ESP summer program for gifted high schoolers. Anna viewed parenting from the outside before jumping in with a teenager. Since then, she has embarked on a lifelong study of parenting from the beginning of the process with the assistance of her 4-year-old daughter. Anna and her family have recently returned from 5 years in England.

Write your own User's Manual

How to understand your gifted brain and how to communicate that to those who don't. A preview of our graphic novel style handbook to use as a guide for talking to teachers who don't get it.

Cynthia Cepeda is 24 years old, a Voyagers grad and received my BFA in Illustration in 2017 from LUCAD (Lesley University College of Art and Design). I am an autistic freelance illustrator and art mentor with a focus in digital art and I won't give any speeches, but I will answer questions about whatever. Suggested topics: monsters, bugs, the lore of 'Where's Waldo', which version of godzilla was the best, why you should give me twenty of your dollars, etc.

Jump-Starting Connections

Who are the people at this gathering? Some of us are excited and nervous newbies, some of us are working through many issues related to alternative lifestyles, and some of us have arrived at a place of ease in our alternative practices. We’ll spend much of the time moving around, meeting new folks and deepening existing relationships. Let's find out who's here and what we have to offer each other!

Who are you? Who am I? Who are we? In this high-energy, interactive workshop, we’ll find out more about the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of everyone present. We’ll explore curiosity and transparency as attitudes and practices that support healthy relationships, whether with lovers, friends, co-workers, or community members. We’ll have some short, fun exercises where people can try out sharing about themselves transparently and asking questions based on curiosity. And we’ll also talk about how curiosity and transparency go along with other attitudes such as compassion, non-attachment, being “at choice”, personal power and responsibility to create a way of relating that many of us think is sustainable, healthy, and reasonably drama-free.

Finding and Creating Tribe

Exceptionally gifted adults usually need others like them for friends, mates, co-workers in order to thrive. This workshop explores how to find them, how to build connections, and how to develop the skills needed to do so effectively. Together, we’ll explore the basis and the tools for creating tribe. Certain attitudes and practices support healthy relationships, whether with partners, friends, co-workers, or tribe members. We’ll use interactive exercises to practice key skills that support healthy, reasonably drama-free connections. And we’ll also talk about communication, friendship formation, conflict resolution and other skills that lay the ground-work for cohesive, sustainable community.

Indigo Dawn is an impact-oriented love activist, whose vision is to create a sustainable society for all its stakeholders. After working to combat educational inequality with Teach for America, they left the corps to pursue societal change via individual transformation and community co-creation. Since then, Indigo has facilitated events nation-wide, to spread the skills necessary to sustain healthy relationships and vibrant communities. Indigo’s most recent project is co-creating “intentional community” at Chrysalis in Arlington, VA and the Greater DC area. As a change-maker, Indigo seeks to improve the lives of others by spreading authenticity, compassion, and awareness

TBA

Anne Fallon is an Education Specialist with a private practice in Milton, MA, where she lives with her daughter, Audrey-Rose. Anne is an educator, researcher, and advocate with expertise in the design and delivery of mastery-based curricula. Anne is also a co-founder of Unleash Potential, Inc., and in her spare time loves creating art.

PANDAS - Not just cute black and white crittersPANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections) is a condition that is little-known and early in its research history. It can be baffling -- onset frequently brings with it apparently random symptoms of a variety of mental illnesses, including OCD, anxiety, halucinations and mood disorders. It also appears that it, like so many other autoimmune conditions, may be affecting the gifted population differently. Presenter Mika Gustavson, MFT, has been developing a specialty in working with kids with PANDAS and their families because they keep walking in her door... This discussion will focus on what is and isn't known about PANDAS, how to form a team of professionals to work with, and what parenting concerns can arise with a diagnosis.

Mika Gustavson,MA, MFT is a therapist who specializes in helping the gifted to thrive. She is the director of Gifted Matters, where she supports families considering paths-less-taken in learning, nurturing and parenting. She maintains a private practice for parents of QUASIE (QUirky, Anxious, Sensitive, Intense, Excitable) children, as well as working directly with adolescents and young adults, and trains other professionals on issues touching on giftedness, homeschooling and parenting. She has published many articles in print and online venues, and is the co-author, with Corin Barsily Goodwin, of two books: Making the Choice: When Typical School Doesn’t Fit Your Atypical Child, and Writing Your Own Script: A Parent’s Role in the Gifted Child’s Social Development. She works, lives and homeschools in Silicon Valley, with her husband, son, and an ever-changing menagerie (though goats seem to be a constant). When not doing any of the above she can be found playing with yarn, listening to jazz and baroque music, and trying to figure out how to get back to playing violin.

The Power of Art for Social ChangeArt has the power to transcend differences, to elevate consciousness, to be a catalyst for compassion, and to unite in a common purpose to enact and inspire change. As a part of the presentation, I will share some of my projects.

Make your own Mandala (c)

Carling Jacksonis a professional athlete artist. Client base: NBA, WNBA, CFL, NFL and USMNT (soccer/rugby). CJ has a Bachelors degree in History specializing in Black History from Southern University A&M. She received a soccer scholarship in 2005 to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Upon arriving, she came face to face with segregation; something she had never witnessed to such a heightened level. In an effort to better understand her environment she enrolled in Black History courses which became her area of focus for the next 6 years....
In 2015, Carling’s painting of Street Children from 5 countries was recognized and awarded by the United Nations in their global goals campaign. During her practicum at Seaquam secondary Carling started a campaign with her Social Justice 12 and IB Art 11 students. The Campaign entitled “Students for Syrian Refugees” involved working with local Syrian refugees using art as a platform to combat negative stigma that portrays refugees in a less than positive light. Their project is being published in JR's first book on art for social change.

Things that Fly (c)

Last year, we made things that float. this year, we make things that fly. We also build things, draw things, read things and talk things. only rule is no messing with little kids' fun in pursuit of your own. all welcome.

Dane Kuttleris trying to be concise about this. Suffice to say: she makes food, builds poems, and talks too much.

Hexaflexagons(c)
Like folding, twisting, coloring, or paper models with interesting topological properties? If you enjoy any of those activities, come create artistically and mathematically interesting paper hexaflexagons.

Alexa Kay is a Ph.D candidate and teacher in the Educational Psychology program at Penn State University with a focus on learning and teaching in mathematics, learning from multiple representations, and measurement and evaluation. Outside of school, Alexa enjoys finding inspiration through working with high school and college students on pre-calculus level mathematics, painting, and playing board games.

Theater and Improv Games (c)

Blurb: We’re gonna make it up as go… Get it? Improv?

Jessie Kay is having a very hard time writing a bio right now, but promised to have one to us soon!

Kathi regrets that she will be unable to join us this year, but she expects to return next year!

KathiKearney's bio can be found on the 2017 presenters page.

Carolyn regrets that she will be unable to join us this year, but she expects to return next year! will be with us, despite the prior message.

Kaisa Kindgrove has a biography and I am sure I have put it somewhere safe.

Spinjam!

So what makes a fidget spinner work, anyways? Come chat about it and decorate your own!

Kay Labellahas a terrible time making up her mind and so ended up being a student of biochemistry and English and then a lab technician in Boston. When not sciencing at a bench, Kay pokes at costuming, LARP, writing, and medieval dancing.

Phenomenological Approaches to Testing & TherapyPhenomenology was the philosophical school started by Edmund Husserl in the early 1900s and that gave us existentialism.

Erick MedinaPsy.D. is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he majored in philosophy, and Rutgers University, where he obtained his doctorate in clinical psychology. He did post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Vanguard, and at the Integrated Center for Child Development in Canton, MA, and has taught at the high school as well as college level. He currently does psychotherapeutic as well as neuropsychological work with children, adolescents, and adults, and also works with couples and groups.

On Bat Caves and Building a Safe Haven

Too much time with a bunch of people, and we are overstimulated and ready to hide under the bed. We need solitude to recharge. That’s probably fodder for a completely different discussion. However, what I want to make an argument for here is a providing your family and yourself with a haven for your minds and souls. Call it whatever you like: Bat Cave, a home, a wildlife refuge. On many days, it may be all of the above!

Dr. Rachel Little Morris is the mother of three gifted young adults and grandmother to two beautiful little girls. Alongside her Mr. Incredible, she has been parenting with awe and wonder for over 23 years. Identified as gifted in early elementary school, Rachel's journey to embracing and understanding her own giftedness has not been easy, but parenting her own children was her greatest encouragement. It has also been her greatest adventure.

Rachel is a microbiologist who teaches in the Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics Program at Michigan State University. When she's not teaching, she loves spending time with her family and her dogs, reading about science, and yoga.

Tammy regrets that she cannot be with us this year, but she expects to return next year!

Tamora Pierce's bio can be found on the 2017 presenters page.

Mindfulness for the Highly Gifted: A Powerful Tool for Presence and ConnectionThis 65 minute combination lecture/workshop offers adults* who care for teach and work with highly, profoundly and exceptionally gifted young people, and/or those young people themselves (ages 11 and up), information about, exposure to and an experience of Mindfulness. Mindfulness is introduced as a tool that addresses various needsspecific to the gifted population and how the practice can lead to greater self-acceptance, awareness, resilience and connection.

Linnea Pyneis a 20 plus-year mindfulness practitioner, a Certified Mindfulness Facilitator through UCLA, and the owner of A Mindful Life, LA where she works privately with teens and families to develop at-home mindfulness practices that best support their individual and family needs. To her delight, she has been able to work regularly with the gifted population through the Institute of Educational Advancement (IEA) in both their academy and parent education programs and well as offering workshops for both parents and children at The Mirman School in Los Angeles where both her children attended. Through UCLA she has worked in many varied and diverse environments from schools, to businesses to treatment centers and loves her work helping people flourish in their lives. She earned her BA in Neuropsychology from Bowdoin College and her MFA from the Denver Center NTC and has worked over the years applying her knowledge in many fields as diverse as behavioral science, education, and the arts. She is a gifted Mindfulness consultant, teacher, curriculum designer and facilitator as well as a a successful conflict resolution program developer and grant writer. Her special areas of interest, expertise and experience include teens and young adults in transition and facing difficult challenges, highly and profoundly gifted tweens and teens, gifted education and the Twice-Exceptional, and emotional intelligence training for leaders in education and in business. She is the mother of a two daughters, one highly gifted and one profoundly gifted, and counts them amongst her greatest teachers.

Finding and Creating Tribe

Exceptionally gifted adults usually need others like them for friends, mates, co-workers in order to thrive. This workshop explores how to find them, how to build connections, and how to develop the skills needed to do so effectively. Together, we’ll explore the basis and the tools for creating tribe. Certain attitudes and practices support healthy relationships, whether with partners, friends, co-workers, or tribe members. We’ll use interactive exercises to practice key skills that support healthy, reasonably drama-free connections. And we’ll also talk about communication, friendship formation, conflict resolution and other skills that lay the ground-work for cohesive, sustainable community.

Michael Rios is the parent of profoundly gifted children, has published on giftedness, and has done extensive counseling work with gifted adults. For over 40 years, he has been involved with creating alternatives to conventional schools and workplaces. He regularly organizes personal growth workshops focusing on communication skills, personal empowerment, and effective social engagement

First Time BIQ Attendees

If you have never beentoone of our conferences, this will help provide you with orientation to recurring themes, particular vocabulary, and the various presentations throughout the rest of the weekend. I'll answer quotes, run rapidly through introductory material, and generally try to make you feel welcome!

Second Topic

I am not currently scheduled to do a 2nd topic. That may change.

Logic Games (c)

Games you can play without buying anything.

Josh Shaineis a migrant teacher, working forhomeschool families, public and private schools, and whatever else comes down the pike. He works predominantly with gifted children, with a focus on underachievers and hg/pg issues. He is also slowly researching non-linear thinking styles.

Write your own User's Manual

How to understand your gifted brain and how to communicate that to those who don't. A preview of our graphic novel style handbook to use as a guide for talking to teachers who don't get it.

Melinda Stewarthas worked with gifted children and adolescents in a variety of settings over the last 38 years. She is the founder and former director of Voyagers, Inc., and has been on the staffs of the Stone Center at Wellesley College and McLean Hospital. She is retired as the Director of Counseling at Groton School in Groton, MA. She now maintains a private counseling and consulting practice is Littleton, MA and volunteers far more time than she has to the things she loves: teaching at Voyagers Independent Learning Center and singing with the Nashoba Valley Chorale.

Brain Chemistry and The Fundamental Traits of GiftednessIn the past, Van has presented his “Deep Six” paradigm, which maps each of the brain’s chief neurotransmitters to a cognitive personality trait (the six traits turn out to underlie the four of the MBTI). This time, rather than give a full bottom-up explanation of how the brain chemicals relate to one another and how they implement the traits, he’ll use a top-down approach, explaining each of the fundamental traits of gifted cognitive style, while doing little more than naming the chemicals that mediate them. Less geeky insight, more practical knowledge! (Yes, thinking bottom-up versus top-down is a one of the traits, which explains why Van hasn’t thought of doing it this way before.)

Eric Vanentered Harvard in 1972 as one of future Nobel Laureate Sheldon Glashow's particle physics tutees and graduated in 1978 as one of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop's students. He has spent a number of years back at Harvard, as a Special Student affiliated with the Graduate Department of Psychology, taking 20 undergraduate courses in the field in preparation for an eventual Ph.D. He lives in Watertown, Mass.

Using JEI as a tool beyond publishing student research

This interactive session will be twofold. In the first part, we will go over how the Journal of Emerging Investigators publishes student research. You’ll earn everything you need to know about the expectations, the process involved, and the benefits to the student. Secondly, we will present a newly created set of tools available to educators. These tools will allow for JEI to be incorporated back into the classroom and provide students with an ability to read, process, and think critically about research published by their peers.

Publishing your own peer-reviewed manuscripts (Teens invited!)(c)

What is a scientific manuscript? How is it different from a science textbook? Come learn what is meant by a scientific publication and walk through all the steps involved in the publishing process. In this session, you’ll also learn how you can take your own research idea, or science fair project, and turn it into your very own manuscript that can be published with JEI.

Nico Wagner and JEI staff

Return of the Giant Bubbles! (c)

Have you ever wondered how to make the best giant bubbles? What stuff do you put in them? And what makes a giant bubble “the best”, anyway? I have three different giant bubble mixes, so come try them out. We’ll compare them, and then we’ll look at the recipes to see if we can guess what things make the best giant bubbles!

Abigail Walzeris a person who needs a bio.

Making Stuff and Making Stuff Up(c)

Make *stuff* out of *stuff*. (paper towel tubes, buttons, egg cartons, feathers....) Play some drama games. Make up improvised skits using the props you made!

Louise J. Waugh has no advanced degrees and over 20 years experience with children of all ages. She probably knows some things and never eats children - even small, cute ones that would make a great snack.

Tribe, neighborhood or community inschool(c)(Insert your blurb here.)

Mary Ellen Wesselsis an educational advocate specializing in 2e kids, and a para professional at an arts integration charter school. She took the year long SEAT training through COPAA (Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys) and has worked as an advocate, a teacher and a paraprofessional. She has a M.Ed. in both Curriculum, and Arts Integration with a special interest in emergent curriculum. She is a musician, and a mother of two (2e) sons, one in high school, one currently unschooled. She loves collaboration, but her interests always outnumber her time! You can reach her at MaryEllenWessels@gmail.com

Aimee regrets that she will not be able to present this year, but expects to return next year!

Aimee Yermish's bio can be found on the 2017 presenters page.

YA Program Staff:Jay Piltser and Andy Cowan coordinate the Young Adult program. Their bios, their presenters' bios, and the YA Program schedule and description are here.